Will these two Initiatives make the Ballot? And how to track Washington's Phantom Employers?

Last edited Mon Dec 22, 2025, 07:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Paul Queary
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As we were perusing the latest financial disclosures from Let’s Go Washington (LGW), the conservative initiative machine that faces an impending deadline to qualify two ballot measures to the Legislature, we noticed a big new donor.

LGW got a check for $300,000 last month from an organization called Washington Rising, which has an interestingly anonymized website. The site is just a landing page with a donate button. There’s no “about us” page and no contact information, and their website registration is also a dead end. LGW’s disclosure of the donation lists an address in Tennessee, which looks kinda fishy. Washington Rising isn’t registered as a political committee with the Public Disclosure Committee, nor did we find it listed in the Secretary of State’s data on Washington corporations and charities.

That check represents nearly 10 percent of the more than $3 million LGW has taken in this year as it tries to qualify the two ballot measures. Most of the rest of the money comes from known players on the right, including LGW founder Brian Heywood and trucking magnate Steve Gordon. Money is particularly important in initiative politics because most campaigns rely largely on paid signature gatherers.

The group has until Jan. 2 to collect 308,911 valid signatures of registered voters. The Secretary of State recommends turning in about 390,000 to qualify because many signatures are duplicates or otherwise invalid.

https://www.postalley.org/2025/12/19/will-these-two-initiatives-make-the-ballot-and-how-to-track-washingtons-phantom-employers/

I saw one of these paid signature gatherers outside my local Fred Meyer the other day. I've heard that often these guys don't even live in Washington. This guy was wearing an LA Rams sweatshirt.

I avoided contact with this guy but by the time I got back to my truck there was a loud argument going on between two guys near the initiative guy.